“Everyone knows what an ambulance is but do people actually know what a paramedic does?”

School pupils have been left inspired after a visit from two BSc Paramedic Science students.

GCU students Zoe Millar and Fiona Reid, who are both in the final year of their degree, travelled to Dumfries in March to help children at Kirkbean Primary School learn about the role of a paramedic.

Zoe explained: “My best friend is training to become a primary school teacher. She’s currently on placement and messaged me saying they were meant to have a visit from paramedics for My World of Work Week, but they had to cancel. She asked if we could go and we obviously couldn’t let them down!

Fiona added: “I was like; ‘I’ll come, I’ll come!’. I just wanted to tell the young people all about our profession and help open their eyes to a potential future career. We had a nice wee drive down to Dumfries and it was as simple as that, really.”

Both Zoe and Fiona enjoyed getting the opportunity to pass on their knowledge to the children.

Zoe said: “Everyone knows what an ambulance is but do people actually know what a paramedic does? It’s important for people working in the emergency services to go out to schools and explain a bit about what they do.

“We brought some of our Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and we showed them the big jackets and hazmat suits. We also brought our stethoscope, but we had to try and stop them throwing it about!”

Fiona said: “There was only about 54 pupils there but that was the whole school! It was just nice to get the chance to speak to them all.

“I think it was like the best day ever for them! We had a Powerpoint and were planning on teaching them but we opened it up to allow them to ask what they wanted.

“They all knew what number to phone for an ambulance – it was very impressive!”

Zoe hopes that their visit will encourage the children to follow in their footsteps in future.

She said: “I think we would definitely consider doing something like this again! It’s important to try and encourage a new generation and make them aware of their options.

“There were a couple of really keen beans, so who knows…we might have recruited some future paramedics!”

Find out more about our BSc Paramedic Science course here

By Ross Clark     
Got an SHLS or GSBS story? Email me at Ross.Clark@gcu.ac.uk or message me on Twitter